Cutting Evening -

Hello everyone,

I am having a cutting evening with Flux Projects team tomorrow evening at 6PM. If you are interested, please e-mail me at gyunhur@gmail.com. I will give you more information how you can join us!

Thank you very much,
Gyun

Saturyday Morning

Saturday morning brunch -

It has been awhile for me to have no events arranged for Saturday. Usually, on Saturdays, I would have to do errands, go to artist talks, participate in some projects, and meetings to catch up. This morning, I woke up not having to worry too much about the schedule for the day, except . . . flower cutting and video recording oh, and evening events at Get This! Gallery and Saltworks Gallery.  -_+

We usually eat a bowl of sticky rice with beans and a soup, along with some side dishes - various Kimchi stuff (fermented cabbages and radish). I was reading some The New York Times articles on my laptop while my parents were catching their news on Korean news channel on TV. Egyptians' protest was a big news in both media, so we talked a little bit about that. My dad mentioned how he was, too, once a part of protest against a militant government in Korea in 1970s and 1980s. Right after Korean War, South Korea also had to go through much tension and sacrificial blood to accomplish democratic government that exists today. To view images of Egyptians' protest, go to http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/01/28/world/middleeast/egypt-protests.html?ref=middleeast.

The Kwangju uprising of 1980, South Korea

Happy Saturday, everyone!
I will be cutting more flowers today, and oh, Happy 6th Anniversary, Get This! Gallery!!! Thanks for everything -

 - G.

My First Lobby Day at GA Capitol Hill

Mrs. Sandra Deal speaking, First Lady, State of Georgia

It was gloomy and rainy today. I parked awkwardly right front of Capitol Hill and headed to Central Presbyterian Church where people were gathered to be trained for the Arts Advocacy day at the Capitol.

Teresa Osborn from the Hudgens Center for the Arts was right at the registration table. Of course, we greeted each other with excitement. I was quite impressed by the number of people and familiar faces I saw. The room was full with arts advocates and arts leaders!!!

First Lady of the State of Georgia, Mrs. Sandra Deal spoke on behalf of our Governor Nathan Deal. Cool, right?

I was quite confused at the beginning, but eventually got to understand the goal for today's advocacy.


We were there to ask the legislature :

• to support the move of the Georgia Council for the Arts to the Georgia Department of Economic Development in a way that maintains its eligibility to receive National Endowments for the Arts Funding.

• to fund the Georgia Council for the Arts at $1 Million in Fiscal Year 2012. It's an investment of one dime per person in Georgia which makes us 49th in the nation in per capita arts spending. The Georgia Council for the Arts funding earns a return on investment of 7:1, resulting in increased local and state tax revenues. $1 Million of funding at the state level will earn an additional $900,000 matching grant from the National Endowments for the Arts.

Everyone is suffering from this economy, therefore, budget is getting cut everywhere. Non-profit arts organizations got one of hardest hits. Last year in April, 2010, there was a rally to protest arts funding cuts and the elimination of the Georgia Council for the Arts. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution blog, Gov. Sonny Perdue's fiscal 2011 budget cut arts funding to $890,735, down from $2.52 million last year. To read more details about last year's rally, go to http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/hundreds-rally-to-protest-475035.html.

Our point to the legislature was "the $385 Million arts industry in Georgia creates opportunities for tourism, local commerce, and celebration of regional culture in Georgia." Arts industry yields economic profits, not losses. Considering Georgia being 49th state in the nation in its arts spending per capita, today's Lobby Day for the Arts Advocacy seemed urgent.

I went to the house representatives and the state senates with two other people from the Alternate Roots (non-profits arts organization in Atlanta). It took us a long time to find the right representatives and find their rooms... running around the building was quite exhausting as well. Yet this one state senate really heard us. She was encouraged by what Alternate Roots accomplished this past year, and she recognized the need of the support for the arts.

Driving back to Marietta, I was inspired by all the arts leaders who came out for this Lobby Day. Without this mechanism for the arts industry, the city of Atlanta and rest of Georgia would be lacking so much of its identity as a cultural center. With such support in the arts, I was able to benefit from generous arts education, funding, and opportunities.

I did a very small part as an artist. Just to be present at the Arts Advocacy Lobby Day at the Capitol.

Next time I participate, I will post more information so that you can be a part of it, too.

- G.

GACAA Arts Advocacy Afternoon at the Georgia State Capitol

ad.vo.ca.cy: The act of pleading or arguing in favor of something, such as a cause or policy (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language).

lob.by.ing: Activities aimed at influencing... members of a legislative body on legislation (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law).

It's rainy and gloomy today. This is my very first time participating in advocacy and lobbying at the capitol. I have no idea how it is going to be, but I will share more stories about the experience tonight.


- G.

Late Night Thoughts - placeness, blogging and twittering, Lenox project, writing, this weekend . . .

Studio calendar to keep track with schedule and number of cups of shredded flowers

So I'm up late tonight - with so many thoughts on my mind. To process my mind, I turned myself to blogging - oh dear. Where did that good, old writing on a journal go?

I, in fact, have been thinking a lot more about my blogging. As it is my resolution to polish up my blog this year, I also want to get more serious about writing as well. English is my second language, so I know my writing is lacking in its correct grammar. I also would like to see if I could improve my creative/critical writing, considering myself becoming a consistent art blogger and a commentator. Hey, I wanted to be a writer as a young girl, and if not a serious author, I still could be an interesting blogger at least!

This thing called 'social media' is changing the way artists represent themselves. We definitely have more control over our representation and persona. And this blogging activity allows an artist to process happenings around her, promote art events in community, share about art making with others, and critically develop an artistic voice that is valuable to the community as well as to other artists. 

According the website Zitzsolution, "Facebook has over 250 million users globally. On an average, 70-100 tweets happen by the second. An average user on Facebook has 120 friends." Now, that's mind boggling for real.  

I haven't quite figured out twittering thing yet. Well, I do not have a smart phone, so that explains much of it. Yet, I just found out people check out my blog via tweeter more than I expected! So I just changed the background of my twitter, so that it looks nice. Check it out and follow me! http://twitter.com/#!/gyunhur 

 

Placeness - is also on my mind. I want to revisit Miwon Kwon's One Place After Another.  I will do a post about her writings and thoughts on placeness and site-specificity, which will become essential in developing my conceptual approach to the Lenox project with FLUX in March. Here is great a quote regarding issues of an individual's contextualized identity in community/place. http://www4.ncsu.edu/~sttwn/vzc.htm

How is it possible to throw light on individual and community fragmentation: of the loss of the traditional definitions of identity, community/"place" and "site"? How do we frame our identity, whether as the exoticized subjects of the community where site-specific art is created, or as the exoticized persona of the interventionist artist, and who is left out?

Korean journalist Ms. Kim called me this morning to ask me about my artist talk at the Hudgens this Saturday. She asked me what I would be presenting during the talk and if it would be all right for Korean speaking audience to come. I said, "of course!" To her question, "what would you like for people to get out of your talk?" I mentioned how I would like Korean immigrants like my parents and myself to have an opened mind and curiosity about contemporary art. They should not feel intimated or distant just because it is unfamiliar. Ultimately, where my art stems from isn't too different from their life stories. I hope they can somehow relate to my story and artwork.


* * *
Lenox project is coming up in a few weeks.  I had a meeting with FLUX and Lloyd (Get This! Gallery director) and I am getting excited about this ambitious project. There will be a lot of logistics to figure out, but it's an incredible challenge and opportunity for me. I will be posting about 'volunteering' and 'installation process,' so stay tune.

FLUX projects are funding a few more artist projects this year. To check out more about their projects, go to http://www.fluxprojects.org/projects.html.

To Do List for me this weekend:

Friday, Jan. 21, 2011

The Museum of the Contemporary Art of Georgia

Movers & Shakers: MOCA GA Salutes the Rising Stars of the Georgia Arts Scene

Exhibition Dates: January 22 - March 19, 2011

Opening reception: 6:30-7:30pm

 

Saturday, Jan. 22, 2011

The Hudgens Center for the Arts

Artist Talk at 11AM
For direction, go to http://thehudgens.org/?page_id

Get This! Gallery

Life Iconic

Print show curated by: Jiha Moon
January 22 - March 05, 2011
Opening reception: 7-10pm

Rich Theater, Woodruff Art Center

Iranian Film Today

Women Without Men

8 pm / To buy tickets, go to

http://www.high.org/main.taf?p=4,3,2&eventId=742&eventTypeId=8

   

Maybe I will see you around this weekend! Just don't judge me if you see dark circles under my eyes and say 'hi.' -_-;

- G.